The Godfather ...the movie

AMC airs The Godfather and The Godfather Part II several times per year. Besides this week, AMC aired all 3 movies on Thanksgiving. GF3 is atrocious.

Unfortunately, AMC edits them. If IFC were to buy the rights to air the Godfather movies, they would air as is. My husband is Italian-American (his mother is Sicilian) and he LOVES the first two movies; for him, they are cinema classics. My MIL however hates violence in movies; she couldn't even watch "The Sopranos".

I don't know about Italians in Italy, but back when the US Postal Service opened up the voting for the big "Celebrate the Century" series of postage stamps, there was an organized campaign by Italian-Americans to vote for alternative subjects so that "The Godfather" would not be one of the selected designs. They were successful.

Didn't know there was a GF3 ...missed that one. Agree acraven , that should have never even been considered as a stamp

It is a tad cheesy, but our first trip to Italy, which started in Taormina, Sicily, we took 'The Godfather Tour', which was actually in the medieval villages above Taormina--Castelmola, Forza D'Agro and Savoca.

Fascinating! We were taken to Bar Vitelli (in Savoca), which was the setting in Godfather I with the little cafe after Michael Corleone gets 'struck by the thunderbolt' after seeing Apollonia, and then asking her father through a translator her hand in marriage. Inside the cafe is an old granita (Italian ice) machine that reportedly Francis Ford Coppola tried to purchase from the owner in 1972.

Also we visited a setting in Forza D'Agro where during a flashback in Godfather II, little Vito, after his mother and brother have been killed by Don Ciccio's men, hides in a cart and is taken to the pier to be smuggled to America.

As an aside, the actual town of Corleone is farther inland but could not be used because the local Mafia chieftains wanted too much in bribe money, and Coppola and his backers were too broke at the time to pay them, so they simply found somewhere else to film and called it Corleone.

One other thing--apart from the tour, outside Savoca we visited a catacomb like nothing I've ever seen before. Had to go down into a cave, where the corpses of the heads of the town for the last 150 years--not recently probably--were mummified, dressed up, painted and stood upright in alcoves for all to see, out of respect. One of the strangest things I have ever seen.

wow, great reflection Jay, thank you

Must be the anniversary of its release or something

The Godfather series is one of the most iconic and popular movies in American cinema, there is rarely a moment when it can't be seen on one channel or another, from premium channels like HBO, and basic providers like AMC.
The first movie was re-released into the theaters over the summer as a Fathom event.

.....and I'm the one guy who actually likes GF3.

Some years ago I read on the TCM discussion board that AMC had (at that time) the rights for a 10-year period. I'm not sure when that period ends. There is a very long (7 hours?) version that intercuts the movies to put the action in chronological order. Rights to that are a separate matter, and it was available on HBO for a while.

In a book I read years ago (don’t remember the title) a prominent Sicilian mafioso told the author (a criminologist working for the Italian Dept of Justice) that was the Sicilian mafiosi’ s favorite movie.

but it does end well for any of them

A few years ago I was in Venice walking along the canals. As I walked over a bridge, a gondola was passing under with its cargo of the gondolier, 4 passengers, and an accordionist who was entertaining all as he played the "Love Theme from The Godfather." It's culture, man, and never mind that it isn't always authentic!

For most italians Part I is a wonderful movie, a great fiction based on the story of the 5 american Families. Part II is just a tale, a "founding myth" deliberately far from "history".

The real history of Sicilian mafia is always the history of the antimafia, it's the story of a 50 years long massacre; so the Godfather Part II in Sicily isn't seen as a "real" story, something that you can connect with your memories. Sicilians remember how Corleone became a mafia stronghold, who died, who disappeared and why. No kid escaped to become a fascinating boss and a loving husband: in the real Corleone a kid was killed in his bed because he wanted to tell the truth about a political assassination. There was no code of silence in the real Corleone, the all story was written on local papers. At least there wasn't the simplified version told by Coppola.

Coppola knew the other side of the coin, but maybe he decided to respect the victims, or maybe he thought that reality was too big of a bite for the american viewers. For sure he deleted a couple of shots in Part II based on actual (nasty) events and judging from Part III he did the right thing.

There's been a bunch of Coppola mentions in the thread but nothing for the real mastermind of the saga: Mario Puzo. He was very hands-on in the making of all three films, co-writing the screenplays.

absolutely ...Mario Puzo ...it must have been a risk for him

As an Italian-American who grew up in New Jersey during the 50s and 60s, I have deliberately avoided will not watch this movie. Having grown up when and where I did, I've had my fill of equating being of Italian descent with being associated with the mafia. Yes, the mafia is part of Italian history, but now that I realize the treasures that Italians have given the world, I see the mafia as a highly insignificant part of that history. I know that the makers of this movie didn't intend to glorify the mafioso or to further the sometimes negative view of Italians, but I think that is what happened. When I visited Sicily a couple of years ago, I was sad to see that The Godfather image had become part of the tourist industry, despite the efforts to crack down on the mafia. Just my opinion....

I was sad to see that The Godfather image had become part of the
tourist industry, despite the efforts to crack down on the mafia.

Wonder if the tourist interest is as much about the scenery as the story? The settings of countryside/ towns were beautiful.

I sometimes have bigger issues with movies which play loose with actual historical events, especially when inaccuracies are a significant part of the story.

The driver from Sicily Life (the tour company based in Taormina--highly recommended, they did our transport to & from Catania airport as well) spoke little English but just enough to communicate with us on the private tour. However, aside from knowing where to take us, he told us absolutely nothing about the Godfather story, and I didn't ask him. I had to figure out a lot myself, which was fine, and being a student of the movies I kind of knew what was what.

I was certainly glad he was doing the driving on those winding mountain roads--incredible. And it was such a cool, foggy day--which made those catacombs look like Transylvania--that I just felt a vibe, almost of omerta (keep-a yo mout' shut!), it was a subject not to be broached.

But you're correct, Kath. The scenery was abso-tively spectacular, like a different part of the world in a different time. I almost expected to see a dinosaur or two...

Why a risk for Puzo? He wrote the novel at a time that the Mafia in America was already living "nostalgia". He lived in Manhattan.

All three films follow a formula plot, from a big party opening scene to Michael alone at the closing.

I watched snippets of The Sopranos long enough to realize it wasn't a cartoon.

Disclaimer: my father immigrated to the US as a solo teenager and had many experiences of discrimination because of his being Italian.

I remember when the first Godfather movie came out, I was barely a teenager.
I grew up in a large city which at the time was predominately Italian and Irish.
My fathers good friend was upset by the movie and was involved in picket lines at the theaters.
I remember being very confused by all this. What I do remember was the people picketing,
many Sicilian Americans, were quiet, respectful, and non-threatening.
I wish people today would play by the same rules of demonstrating.

There's been a bunch of Coppola mentions in the thread but nothing for
the real mastermind of the saga: Mario Puzo. He was very hands-on in
the making of all three films, co-writing the screenplays.

A mastermind storyteller indeed! The book was far superior and much more gripping than the movies. The Godfather was just one of many books Mario Puzo wrote and, to me, his best. I've read 6 of his novels.

Saddam Hussein's favorite movie. He allegedly watched it hundreds of times.

Leave the gun. Take the cannoli.

Indeed.